Bruce Reznick isn’t going to Chicago to turn over the card. He isn’t the Nets’ lottery representative. He isn’t the one who’ll sit at the podium on May 10 with the franchise’s future in his hands.
And yet, in another way, he’s exactly who should be there.
Better known to Nets fans as Mr. Whammy, Reznick was invited by governor Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks to attend the NBA draft lottery as a special guest of the organization, a move that says plenty about what this night means to Brooklyn and why so many fans wanted him involved in the first place.
For a franchise staring at one of its biggest lottery nights in years, the Nets are bringing along one of the people who’s lived every version of their story up close.
Mr. Whammy has been a courtside fixture for decades, waving his arms and trying to throw off opposing free-throw shooters. Last summer, his place in Nets culture was recognized in a larger way when he was honored in the Basketball Hall of Fame’s James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery, which celebrates a handful of fans whose identities became woven into the teams they love. Reznick didn’t become part of the Nets overnight. He stayed long enough that the franchise eventually had to acknowledge what he already was.
So, when Tsai announced Monday on X that Mr. Whammy would be attending the lottery as Brooklyn tries to land the best pick possible, fans understood the gesture immediately. He isn’t there for basketball reasons in the conventional sense. He’s there for something closer to symbolism, loyalty and yes, a little bit of luck.
“If I only knew,” he told the Daily News when asked how he was invited. “I just got a call that they selected me.”
He called the invitation “incredible” and said he’d been told no other fan had ever been invited in this way. Then he went where this conversation always seems to go for him, back to the Nets, back to his wife Judy, and back to the consistency of a relationship that outlasted the move from New Jersey to Brooklyn and all the losing seasons in between.
“My wife passed away two years ago, and she was with me every game,” Reznick said. “We never missed a game from Jersey to Brooklyn in 30 years.”
The Nets finished 20-62 this season, the third-worst record in the league. They have a 14% chance to land the No. 1 pick and a 52.1% chance to stay in the top four. Last year, they dropped from sixth to eighth in the lottery. This time, the stakes are heavier. Brooklyn has picked in the top six just once in the last 25 years, selecting Derrick Favors third in 2010.
In other words, this isn’t some routine stop on the rebuild calendar. It’s one of the biggest lottery nights the franchise has had in a long time.
That’s also why fans were screaming for Mr. Whammy to be part of it. They know the odds. They know what happened last year. They know what’s sitting on the board if the Nets jump into the top three and how much more uncertain things get if the pick slides into the 5-to-7 range. They also know this team’s history well enough to understand that moments like this can hang around for years.
Reznick doesn’t speak about any of that like an executive or a draft analyst. He speaks like a fan who’s already decided the emotional part of the deal is non-negotiable.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re a world champion every game, every year,” he said. “I love them. If they lose, I love them. If they win, I love them.”
He said he’s taking his grandson with him to Chicago. He talked about Brooklyn as home. He called the organization exceptional and said of Tsai, Marks and the franchise, “They treated my wife beautifully.” He also said the fans are the heroes, not because they’re expected to do anything, but because they keep showing up anyway.
Mr. Whammy isn’t representing the Nets at the lottery, at least not officially. But for a fan base that wanted him there, and for a franchise that understood what it was saying by bringing him, that technicality only goes so far.
The Nets are heading into Chicago chasing ping-pong balls, franchise luck and maybe the biggest break their rebuild has seen yet.